Cube Design Intro – Part 2

So I realized that I neglected to address the multicolor, artifact, and land sections in my first post. So here’s some reasonably quick notes on that section of the cube. I’m looking at possible card choices on Magiccards.info and am highlighting some of the better options:

Guilds

• The Azorius (Blue/White) will focus primarily on control strategies, with possible aggro/flying overtones. Some possible card choices in that regard include Wall of Denial, Meddling Mage, and Overrule.
• Orzhov (White/Black) mages will feature control strategies primarily, with possible aggressive options. Culling Sun is a cheap ($) Wrath effect, Pillory of the Sleepless is effective as removal and lifeloss, and Unmake is cheap (mana) and efficient removal.
• The Boros (Red/White) will be an aggressive color pair. Bull Cerodon is an efficient curve-topper, and Duregar Hedge-Mage provides excellent removal in both Red and White.
• Selesnya (Green/White) has some strong but cheap ($) multicolor cards that help create efficient midrange or aggro decks. Behemoth Sledge is an amazing equipment, Glare of Subdual can paralyze an opponent’s assault, Quasali Pridemage is versatile and powerful, and Watchwolf is a 3/3 for 2 mana.
• In the Dimir (Black/Blue) guild, control strategies are very powerful. Agony Warp can result in a three-for-one for very little mana cost, and Soul Manipulation can be useful as well.
• The Izzet (Red/Blue) guild has a powerful control strategy to offer, “Counterburn.” Useful cards for this archetype include Electrolyze and Wee Dragonauts.
• Simic (Blue/Green) cards will focus on card drawing and efficient, evasive creatures. Good examples include Trygon Predator, Jhessian Infiltrator, and Lorescale Coatl.
• Radkos (Black/Red) cards will be powerful removal and land destruction, fueling aggro strategies. Terminate, Bitumnous Blast, Wrecking Ball, Fulminator Mage, and Blightning all serve as disruption and removal.
• Cards in Golgari (Black/Green) colors focus on slow, grinding midrange card advantage. Grave-Shell Scarab and Putrid Leech are versatile and powerful creatures, while Puetrify serves as effective removal.
• Finally, the Gruul (Red/Green) are pure beatdown. Tattermunge Maniac is a cheap beater, and Savage Twister is a cheap ($) Wrath effect.

Artifacts

This section should be easy to fill, with the large number of cheap and new artifacts found in the Scars of Mirrodin block. Some effects I’ll be looking for include:

• Mana Fixing/Acceleration. Artifacts play a major role here. The Signets from Ravinica are a must, and I’ll be looking for other cheap, universal mana fixers. As for acceleration, Mind Stone works, as well as most of the fixing.
• Supplementary Creatures. There are some reasonably decent and cheap ($) artifact creatures out there, and I’ll be looking for them. Juggernaut and Artisan of Kozilek (okay, technically not an artifact) are good examples.
• Equipment. One of the best budget options.What I can afford of the new Living Weapons is a must, as well as classic, cheap (mana) equipment like Bonesplitter.

Lands

Most lands the cube runs will be used for mana fixing. The ten “Karoos” from Ravinica (Izzet Boilerworks, Orzohov Basilica…) and the five tri-lands from Alara (Arcane Sanctum, Crumbling Necropolis…) will certainly make appearences, as will the Vivid lands from Lorowyn. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of cheap utility lands availible for this sort of budget cube, so no ideas for those at the moment.

Well, that’s pretty much it in terms of preliminary cube design. Trading is proving harder than expected, but hopefully we can get the show on the road in a few weeks. I plan to do the majority of trading at a summer camp I attend, but I’ll need a decent portfolio for that. I’ll be sure to update when possible!

NOTE: If you aren’t familiar with the cards featured in this post, just check out Magiccards.info and search for the name of the card!

On Ethics

Some of the people on MTGSalvation.com forums have expressed ethical concerns with the Pack to Cube Quest. I’ve discussed it a bit on those forums, but I’d like to make a few things clear. First up, here’s some of the more well-written critical posts:

Looking at the usual pack to power trades, this seems to be an excercise in begging other people to give you free stuff. Or just merciless sharking and ripping others off. To upgrade your 25cent rare into anything playble you’d have to pick to be either a) an annoying beggar, b) one of the scum of the earth that rips off newbs or c) both.I don’t approve.

me neither.

when i read about the original project by medina i thought it was pretty disgusting. the success of the mission is directly related to other people getting a raw deal. even if it’s made incrementally, ultimately every single person you dealt with was ripped off intentionally. that was the entire purpose of the exercise.

I realize these people have valid points. Inherent to the idea of any “Pack to Power” or in this case “Pack to Cube” challenge is the idea of trading cards that are worth less by some measure – usually money – for cards that are worth more. That means that the people being traded with are taking a hit in value. I don’t want to rip any of my friends off (for that’s who I’ll be trading with), but I do plan to make trades that are advantageous to me. I don’t however, intend to trade people out of their good cards by convincing them that they are not good. I will simply  attempt to acquire cards that one person wants and get cards from that person that another one wants, but the first one doesn’t. Once I have a decent supply of cards to work with, I will begin trading for cards I need for the cube.

The other thing is that I am making the cube to enjoy with my friends, who are the ones I trade with. In a way, this project will be similar to a cube built from donations, but with more trading and more fun!

Hopefully, my first trade is coming up soon. A friend has expressed interest in the Hellkite Igniter, and as soon as he brings some cards to trade I should be able to start the quest in earnest!

Cube Design Introduction

I’ve talked about trading, and that’s one end of the quest. However, the other also deserves some discussion. Some basics to start us off:

What is a “cube”?

Basically, a cube is a set of cards, typically powerful and fun ones from Magic’s entire history, that can be used for limited play like drafting and sealed decks. Some cubes are “Powered” and include the most powerful Magic cards ever printed, like Black Lotus, Time Walk, and Sol Ring. Other, “unpowered” cubes omit those cards, but still use cards of a very high power level, such as Force of Will and Umenzawa’s Jitte. A third segment of cubes are budgeted and only include commons, commons/uncommons, or have an overall cost cutoff. Finally, some cubes are “themed,” featuring abilities such as Tribal or only multicolor cards.

How are cubes used?

Most cubes are used for different kinds of drafting or sealed. Drafting is where the participants take turns picking different cards and build decks out of the cards they picked. Most drafts are “booster drafts” where each player gets a random “pack” of cube cards, picks a card, and then passes the remainder of the pack to their right. The participants repeat until each player has drafted enough cards to build a deck. Sealed is where each player simply builds a deck out of a random selection of cards.

Cube Design

Cubes are tricky things to build. Each color has to have balanced mana costs, synergistic effects, and be level in power compared to the other colors and color combinations. Archetypes must be worked in and balanced as well, and artifacts, multicolored spells, and mana fixing must be adjusted to fit the needs of a cube as a whole. In many ways, building a cube is like designing a Magic set.

Of course, I say all this from an armchair (Ironically, I’m actually sitting in an armchair as I write this). I’ve  never designed a cube before, so this will be my first. Here are some of my tentative ideas:

Archetypes

• Aggro– Each color should have significant support for aggressive decks. Black will probably be Suicide, Red and White will probably be Sligh, Green and Red to an extent will probably be Stompy, and Blue will mainly be evasion.
• Control– Blue (countermagic), Black (discard and removal), and White (sweepers and removal) will probably be the main control colors. Red should be viable as a splash for sweepers and burn, but Green probably won’t have much of a role.
• Midrange– The classic Black/Green Rock deck should be very viable here, and White/Blue should have some midrange options. Red is probably more suited to aggressive strategies.
• Combo- Since most of my cards are cheap, the classic combos (Voltaic Key/Time Vault, Tinker/Some big artifact fatty) are probably off-limits. That said, I’ll be looking for combo cards, probably focusing on stuff that’s good on its own but better when combined with other cards. For example, I’ll try to include a good number of big fat creatures in order to make reanimator and cheat-into-play viable strategies.

Color Roles:

• White should be a mix of weenies and control cards. I’ll try to find some Wrath options (Sunblast Angel), team boosters, Pacifism effects (Arrest), weenies (Elite Vanguard), weenies with evasion (Stormfront Pegasus), and exiling removal (Oblivion Ring, Condemn). I might add a Soldier or Kithkin tribal theme.
• Blue needs to have card drawing (Mulldrifter), card filtering (Merfolk Looter, Preordain) counterspells (Mana Leak, Counterspell), bounce effects (Into the Roil, AEther Adept), Control Magic effects (Volition Reins) and evasive creatures. A Merfolk tribal theme could be viable.
• Black wants to have both aggro and control themes. Most importantly, it needs removal (Doom Blade, Skinrender), cheap creatures (Vampire Lacerator, Black Knight), discard (Liliana’s Specter, Duress), and some reanimation (Makeshift Manequin).
• Red is all about burn and cheap creatures. It should include cheaper burn spells (Lightning Bolt, Arc Trail), mass removal (Pyroclasm), efficient creatures (Plated Geopode, Keldon Marauders), a bit of land destruction (Stone Rain), and some artifact kill (Manic Vandal).
• Green will focus on powerful creatures (Pelakka Wurm), mana ramp (Llanowar Elves, Cultivate), Naturalize effects (Naturalize), and utility (Creeping Mold, Acidic Slime).

Well, those are my preliminary cube musings. In my next article on cubing, I’ll discuss community feedback to my design notes and talk about the multicolor and artifact sections. Have a comment, either here or in my Cube Design thread over at MTGSalvation.com. Next time, hopefully: the first trade!

Also, if you’re curious about what a particular card does, check out Magiccards.info. It has records on every Magic card mentioned here.

Trading Strategy

So some of you may be wondering how I plan to turn the MBS booster into a cube. The answer? Sharp trading. More specifically, here’s the plan:

1. Trade the Rare (Hellkite Igniter) for several cards. I won’t be aiming for Cube stuff yet, as I need a functioning binder. Hopefully I’ll get another rare or a few uncommons PLUS a few throw-in commons. The trick will be to acquire cards that the current trade partner doesn’t need, but a future one might.
2. Get to know what cards my friends have and want. I am “trading up” here. The secret to trading up is understanding relative values. If you gain something that Person A does not value much for a low price, than trade it to someone who values it highly for a high price, than you have just gained something. If I am to acquire cards that my friends want, I need to know what they want. If someone wants a certain card or type of card, than I need to know who I can get it from.
3. Amass a large selection of cards. The hardest part of beginning this quest will be that I only have 15 cards to work with, and some of them are not very popular or valuable. Once I sit down to trade with someone, I want to make sure I have something they want. If not, they won’t want to trade.
4. Gather many cards of the same type. For example, in my opening booster, two of my cards interacted with Infect. However, most of my friends don’t have infect decks, so they won’t want Infect cards and the ones I have are useless. If I amass a large number of Infect cards, however, people will be able to trade with me and create an entire Infect deck, or add an Infect component to their existing deck. That will allow me to move a large number of otherwise useless cards.
5. Don’t trade for cube in the beginning. I am looking to create a cube. However, my opening booster pack by itself is not equivalent to the 360 card cube I hope to create. That means every trade has to count for something, not for the cube. Once my binder has filled up than I can come back and get some cube cards. EXCEPTION: If I can get some cube-worthy cards as throw-ins I will do so

So there’s a brief rundown of my Pack to Cube strategy. Next time I’ll add some information on my cube design and possibly have some trades made. Stay tuned!

The Pack!

I cracked the pack yesterday. The contents?

Gnathosaur, Rot Wolf, Koth’s Courier, Mirran Mettle, Steel Sabatoge, Phyresis, Burn the Impure, Master’s Call, Dross Ripper, Oculus, Nested Ghoul, Piston Sledge, Lumengrid Gargoyle, Hellkite Igniter, Plains, and a Germ token.

Looks like a reasonably good selection. No Mythics, Zeniths, etc, but I have a friend with a R/B artifact sacrifice deck that could possibly use the Hellkite Igniter and Piston Sledge. The rest of the pack is fairly mediocre, so I’ll have to get some good stuff when trading the rare. Trading will follow soon!